While I have very few pictures to show for it, I’ve been fighting nonstop for two days to get the new doorframe installed in the yurt. I’ve broken a shitload of wall segments, am now out of spares with some still broken, and have made almost no progress fixing 2″ difference in height from front to back that is the fundamental problem. This is extra frustrating because things had been going really well on the project recently, and I’d had a few near-religious moments of satori watching the sun set through the roof ring and the open doorway.

The new doorframe is much stronger and more square than the old one, and neatly clamps the wall vinyl in place for the first time ever, making the connection between the wall and the door neat and nearly airtight. However, there’s a 2″ difference between the height of the wall at the back of the yurt and the front. Odds are good this is *mainly* caused by me being in a hurry to get it set up with rain coming. Also, there are no roof rafters over the doorway, which means that there isn’t as much force pushing the other way. Due to the generally floopy nature of yurting, it’s not possible to determine the correct length of the door rafters mathematically. It pretty much has to be done in-place, which can’t happen as long as that height difference still exists. The net result of all this is that the rafters near the doorway are pushing hard enough on the wall top intersections to break them.

It’s theoretically possible to scoot the walls around to even the height, but having the weight of the roof ring, the rafters, all the insulation, the vinyl cover, plus the tension of multiple tension bands *and* the wall itself, which *acts* like a non-uniform tension band, makes it functionally impossible, as I have discovered while swearing profusely while tripping over power saws, huge splinters, and my bed for the past 48 hours.

So, tomorrow I’m going to completely remove the entire roof just so I can finesse those 2″ of difference down to level. There are a few other changes I’m thinking about making in the way the roof and the walls come together, too. This is also the first time I’m regretting using 1/4″ thick wall segments. While they’re strong enough to support my weight hanging from the roof ring, individually they are quite weak. I think the added weight of all the extra roof insulation may be stressing them too much, though it’s too early to tell. The weak link is the way the rafters sit on top of the wall intersections. In many yurts, the rafters sit on top of the tension ring rope, *not* on the wall intersections. I could do the same, but I’d I’d lose at *least* a few inches of height. There are better ways to connect the tension ring to the top of the walls, too, but that would complicate the slick way I have the insulation installed, which requires no pins or attachments of any kind the way it’s set up now.

Another issue is that when I shrunk the yurt, I couldn’t just cut it off anywhere. I was limited to cutting near the existing intersections. The result is that the the intersections of the walls segments, which should frame a perfect square, instead frame vertical diamonds. This makes them less strong in a vertical direction than they were on the original yurt.

Once all this is done, I shouldn’t have to do it again. I’m going to have to mostly empty the yurt in a week or two when the new flooring comes in. This is one reason I’m working hard to keep the yurt furniture light. It’s my goal to be able to empty and refill the yurt in a single day even when it’s fully set up with a kitchen and office.